You win some, you lose some. On the day it became clear centre-left leader Romano Prodi will shortly be confirmed the winner of last weekend's Italian general election, his defeated opponent, prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, remained defiant.
The defeated prime minister took a break from electoral recounts last night to see his team, AC Milan, beat city rivals Inter Milan, 1-0, in the city derby.
That, however, was the first and last winning moment in a week that has been atypically full of setbacks for the increasingly desperate Mr Berlusconi.
Earlier in the day a communique from the ministry of the interior, which oversees the electoral process, dealt a final devastating blow to his faint chances of overturning last weekend's result, chances that were linked to a recount of some 80,000 "contested" votes.
Yesterday, however, the ministry conceded that the number of votes in question was in fact 5,266, too paltry a figure to have any influence on the outcome.
Inevitably, the ministry's statement prompted a blistering attack from Democratic Left, which spoke of the "number pulled by Berlusconi" and called on him to "show a sense of responsibility and accept the electoral result instead of trying to render it illegitimate".
Up in Bologna, prime minister-elect Prodi had a minor bout of "told-you-so", saying that the recount "has produced nothing new - it has merely confirmed that we won".
Remarkably, however, Mr Berlusconi was having none of it.
Perhaps buoyed by the success of his much-loved team, he told Sky Italia after the game at the San Siro: "In truth, I'm still ready to be the prime minister and I'm waiting with my heart in my mouth for these final results. Until the results are confirmed, we're only talking about provisional data."
Despite Mr Berlusconi's optimism, Italy's Cassazione, the High Court, is now certain to confirm that Mr Prodi's centre-left coalition are the rightful winners.
You win some and you lose some, Silvio.